Flat Classroom Project

This is one to watch!

I love this video! However, does that mean everything you try on virtually will automatically fit when you actually take it home.....? Hmmmmm

Excellent blog post by Kevin Jarrett on developing a successful online community.

great website with lots of tech info and web 2.0 articles and blogs

"Two Pew Internet Project surveys of teens and adults reveal a decline in blogging among teens and young adults and a modest rise among adults 30 and older. In 2006, 28% of teens ages 12-17 and young adults ages 18-29 were bloggers, but by 2009 the numbers had dropped to 14% of teens and 15% of young adults. During the same period, the percentage of online adults over thirty who were bloggers rose from 7% blogging in 2006 to 11% in 2009. "

"Professors who wish to engage students during large lectures face an uphill battle. Not only is it a logistical impossibility for 200+ students to actively participate in a 90 minute lecture, but the downward sloping cone-shape of a lecture hall induces a one-to-many conversation........."

I love this article from Pennsylvania about Suzy Nestico's class participation in the Flat Classroom project and the Flat Classroom conference. Many in pennsylvania have struggled because of their restrictive rules. Suzy gets it done. "The Flat Classroom Project, cofounded by Julie Lindsay, Beijing, China and Vicki Davis, Camilla, Ga., speaks to the very heart of Pennsylvania's Classrooms for the Future initiative and 21st Century learning, Nestico said. It utilizes technologies such as a Ning and Wikispaces that allow students to collaborate with other students around the world to peer edit and design a variety of multimedia, despite location and cultural barriers, much like how the real world is starting to work. Each student works with an international partner to create a multimedia presentation based on one of the 10 "Global Economic Flatteners," as described by Thomas L. Friedman in his book "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century." Nestico learned of the Flat Classroom concept while completing her master's degree in education at Wilkes University, and felt it would give her students an opportunity to explore cultural and political issues without ever having to leave home. After participating in the projects with multiple classes over the past year-and-a-half, new doors opened and, now, students are beginning to meet face-to-face, she said. Students are not just doing education, they are living it, creating it, and ultimately, reshaping what it will look like for others in the future, Nestico said." Great byline that gets to the heart of what we're doing.

Article highlighting Mount Carmel Area's participation in the Flat Classroom Conference in Mumbai, India

This is upsetting. Flash mobs have traditionally been a lot of fun -- now they are violent teenage rampages. Some cities are outlawing them!

Lots of my friends here on this agenda -- @Parentalla (Aparna Vashisht) {Her mother took us around India and is a delightful person} Kevin Jarrett @kjarrett, Lisa Nielsen @InnovativeEdu Mary Beth Hertz @mbteach Chris Lehman - @chrislehmann to name a few. So much fun! Also, my friend George Haines has his 8th grade students speaking - looking for them on the program as well. Of course Ivanka Trump and Anne Curry are also on the list. Have fun and good luck everyone!

Share this with your students who love video games. I love how Alfred shares his thoughts on the transition from gamer to game designer. This is a huge market especially as education moves to gaming platforms as well.

This blog post is from one of Microsoft's bloggers and helps students understand what is required to create video games versus just playing them. Fits in well with Flat Classroom.

My ninth graders have completed a module documenting how to do various tasks in OpenSim, the virtual world we use that is hosted by Reactiongrid. This wiki has the links, instructions, and other pages with tutorials on how to do various items. I was assessing this today and thought I'd pass it along as there is some great information to show you how to do things. (If you are a beginning second lifer you may also learn some things.)

Article written in India newspaper about the Flat Classroom and Flat Classroom conference held in Mumbai. I loved this quote: "To become what the project aspires won't actualise without delivering on imperatives of access and inclusion. Consequently, the idea 'How can I include those who are not like me' underlined most discussions at the conference. There, says Davis, Web2.0, far from being a cultural flattener, is "a culture enhancing tool. It lets students who don't travel, travel virtually, and makes them see where cultural disconnects are happening." For a first-hand experience of these gaps, participants visited Akanksha and Aseema schools that reach out to the underprivileged. One Australian participant came back and told her remote virtual classmates: "Today I stepped through the gaps between the rich and the poor, from Aseema to ASB.""

Are your studetns ready to become eco-heroes? Sign up for this. "The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Education and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) are partnering again this year to educate, empower and engage students and teachers nationwide to become "Agents of Change" in improving their communities through the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. This year the Challenge expands to high school, by inviting students in grades 9-12 to join the effort to meet the environmental challenges of our age. This new phase of the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge kicks off today at an exclusive screening of Discovery Channel's new documentary LIFE at Philadelphia's renowned Franklin Institute in conjunction with the NSTA National Conference."

How students are linking to improve the world. Students studying social entrepreneurship as a video topic may want to view what they are doing here.

A website that many teachers are using to match up with other classrooms and skype and videoconference between them. Several teachers in Maine are doing this that I know of including Cherrie MacInnes. Great place to go!

The Horizon Report series is the most visible outcome of the New Media Consortium's Horizon Project, an ongoing research effort established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within education around the globe. This volume, the 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition, examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative expression within the environment of pre-college education.

Simple Augmented Reality

questions

Excellent 'white paper' written by Steve Hargadon (classroom20 and futureofeducation guru) about Web 2 and education. Has an Elluminate sales-pitch side to it, but very much worth reading and sharing.

"BOSCO-Uganda is helping put an end to isolation caused by war. BOSCO-Uganda is providing an innovative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution to foster social and economical development and peace building in rural communities of northern Uganda. BOSCO is using a collaborative, web-based ICT training approach encouraging communication and collaboration for people living in isolated or war affected areas. "